Yo-Yo

‘The chance of me going on as Borsa are almost nil’

I said to my mother, who had made the trip over, with my father, to watch my 2^nd performance of Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte.

‘Borsa is a role that you could sing, no matter how unwell you are, and this guy has vocal chords of steel’

I elaborated, even exaggerated, so convinced was I that my season was finally over.

The TEXT

                ‘Good morning Thomas, tenor unwell, cancelled Friday. Please call me’

How wrong I could be. Sure enough, as Bettina Giese’s text to me alluded, Borsa had indeed cancelled and, tonight, I will be jumping in for my third performance in two weeks, just on this occasion as Borsa, the Duke’s little friend, in Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto.

A significantly less challenging role than Ferrando, more on Ferrando’s difficulties later, my relaxed week has again been knocked off course as I have fitted in watching the opening night DVD, had additional costume fittings and a three hour staging call.

I am excited about the performance, it is a great new production here in Stuttgart and Borsa in unlike any character I have played before. He is energetic, a live wire, funny, crass, almost as opposite to Ferrando as one might find. Also, in this production, and in all productions by Wieler and Morabito, there is a freedom within the characters, born through a sincere approach and a trust placed in the singers discovery of the character. As such, though there are places where I need to be at certain times, there is much more freedom for me to ‘play’ Borsa than in Stuttgarts new production of Cosi which, without meaning to criticise the show, is much more rigid in its construction.

So, Borsa tonight. Opera performance  47 (FORTY SEVEN) of the season. Probably deserve a little bier after it I think.

Family

At the other end of the week, and where I left you last time, was my 2^nd performance jumping in as Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte.

Moments after I finished the epic blog (next time I do this blogging thing I’ll give myself a word limit) I hopped on the train to meet my parents at the airport. Having very kindly dropped their weekend plans and booked a flight over to see me as soon as they heard I was singing Ferrando on Friday, I was delighted to see them. As I think I mentioned last week, it was a huge occasion for me and it was special to be able to share it with my parents. Like with many parents of musical children, mine spent an incalculable amount of time travelling around to watch me sing as a choirboy – even my poor sisters would spend half of December, including Christmas day, traipsing in from East London to St. Paul’s Cathedral to see me sing, every year from 1994 to 1999.

As an adult this has been less the case, inevitably. I never expect them to come to anything in fact, it is my job after all and I perform a lot. Often I don’t even tell them what I am performing, where or when.

But they made the trip for this, and we had a lovely, if slightly too hot, weekend in Stuttgart together.

The Heat

There is a rule which states that sleep and hydration are the keys to good vocal health. A lack of sleep or being dehydrated and the voice will suffer.  This is one reason that too much alcohol is not ideal for the voice, it affecting both you hydration levels and your sleep.

Another little voice pest is heat, particularly extreme heat.

As I mentioned last week, Stuttgart was hot. Very hot. The geographical situation that Stuttgart finds itself in, surrounded by hills, creates an almost airless and sometimes unbearable climate even when it is 28/29 Celsius. With the thermometer hitting 39 degrees on Friday, Stuttgart wasn’t nice. It felt like living in a tumble dryer. My room, top floor, south west facing, ideally built to be a greenhouse, made things worse. Not only did the excitement of singing Ferrando prevent me from sleeping, but the heat made it virtually impossible.

By Friday afternoon I felt drained and vocally tired. In truth, I wasn’t sure if I would get through a second performance of Ferrando 7 hours later.

Kindly, and partly because I told them to go away for a few hours, my parents allowed me to use their air conditioned room to sleep in for a couple of hours. I also stocked up on water and woke up feeling much more able, around 4 in the afternoon.

A second chance

Tuesday, being my first Ferrando and so last minute, was a bit of a blur. I had since watched back the DVD of the performance and I was disappointed with it. It was fine, but I knew I could do better. Friday was that chance.

I warmed up well, had my routine down to a T, the bathroom visit, the make up, the physical warm, and pep-talked myself into the feeling of Act 2 from Tuesday, not the manic Act 1 guy. The heat was still horrible so, just before we went on, I bathed my feet in cold water.  

This particular production opens with all 6 of us on stage, and I got into position with plenty of time – and started to sweat, a lot, streams of sweat. By the time I stood up to sing the first line, there was virtually a waterfall cascading off my chin. It was like performing an opera in the sauna – not even sauna German-completely naked style – fully clothed in a sauna, coat and all.

The big challenge in this production of Cosi, as if singing Cosi wasn’t challenge enough, is that the four lovers are on stage ALL evening.  No chance to cool down for a bit when you aren’t singing, check the voice out, to drink a bit, wipe your face, prepare for the next scene etc. There wasn’t a lot I could do about the heat, nothing in fact, the sweating was not going to stop, if anything it was going to get worse as the action increased. There were, though, lots of bottles of fake alcohol on stage, so I used every moment I could to replenish my fluids with those – and every moment I turned up stage to wipe my brow.

By Un Aura Amorosa, Ferrando’s act one aria, an aria that almost no tenor in the world likes to sing, and about an hour into the show, I was dehydrated, hot and physically tired. I tried to relax, tried to drink as much as I could just before it, and it was ok. It was better than Tuesday, but I just don’t think this production is set up to help the tenor sing that aria to the best of his ability.

Act 1 as a whole was 40% better than Tuesday had been I’d say.

Awkward laugh

I used the interval for a much needed cool down. Once again did my vocal exercises and some stretches and went out to Act 2 in a positive mood.

Act 2 was fun. I enjoyed it a lot. I relaxed even more into the character, Ferrando was mine, and I sang everything better than the first night. The cast was working well together too, the other five all relaxed in the situation of have me with them and the show had a good energy.

One unfortunate moment, a moment I had to apologise profusely for, came in the act two Fiordiligi aria. In this production, the aria happens just after her and I have been in bed together and almost gone too far (meanwhile, Guglielmo and Dorabella are mirroring us downstairs – this all happening during their duet).

It had been decided, following the suggestion of the rejection of full intercourse by Fiordiligi with her pushing Ferrando off the bed, that Ferrando needed to do something to get his frustration out and to calm down.  So as Fiordiligi starts her soft, thoughtful recitatitve, Ferrando is next door doing some sit ups or press ups to help calm down.  On Tuesday I did 12/13 press ups to a light titter from a few in the audience. On Friday this moment came and I started  – 1,2,3… 10,11…. 24,25 press ups and then a large round of applause, just at the most tender moment in the recitative. I felt terrible, I wanted to turn to the audience to tell them to be quiet. I had upstaged the soprano in her moment of glory.  I have also never done 25 press ups before in my life….

As soon as I got off stage at the end I apologised to Mandy, the least diva-ish of sopranos, and she was fine with it. A lesson to me though, not to get carried away.

Success

Act 2 was a success. The aria was 100 times better than Tuesday, the big duet was fun, the finale went off without a hitch and I received my curtain call with a genuine sense of achievement, a job well done, and a great evening had.

Everyone was very grateful to me for jumping in and complementary for a good job done. I had proved to the powers that be that I could do a big role. Now it was time for a beer.

Relax

A few beers were had outside by the Shauspiel haus. My parents joined us and met my bosses and colleagues. Another nice moment.

I managed to speak to the wife, who was in Spain on a school trip, and share a brief moment of the day with her.

I then spent Saturday relaxing with my parents. Went for a swim, visited the Porsche museum, had same some local dishes in Esslingen and a few ice creams.

Come down

By the end of Saturday, and for much of Sunday my mood changed significantly.

The high of Tuesday night, the first Cosi, followed by Salzburg and then a second Cosi, was huge. I was living on a wave of nervous excitement and adrenaline. By Saturday afternoon this had subsided and was replaced by extreme tiredness and an almost depressive emptiness which alarmed me. Fortunately my parents were there, but the signs were there that I wasn’t so happy when I started sending poorly considered text messages to the wife on her way back from spain, starting arguments that weren’t there to be had.

By Sunday evening I was fine again, but it is important for me to be aware of these yo-yoing emotions. I doubt I will have such a whirlwind week as last week, but I need to know when my feeling bad is just because it is a post show come down and actually the people around me aren’t being unreasonable or inconsiderate.

In these moments particularly, I see how those around performers have a tough job. I must remember that.

The Rest of the Week

Asides from the call to do Borsa this evening, the week has been nice and relaxed.

I went to the Mineral Bad Berg, a spa pool about 15 minutes walk from my flat. Every time I have passed it it has looked empty, so I turned up looking forward to chilling in an empty pool. Of course with it being 35 degrees on this occasion, it was rammed, but still relaxing.

I also escaped the heat by going to the cinema a few times. Once to see the very enjoyable Minions film and a second time to see a ‘Secret screening’, an English film showing at which you don’t discover the film you are seeing until it starts. On this occasion the film was ‘The Age of Adaline’, an enjoyable film that I won’t rush to see again.

Not long left

Just the nine days to go until I fly home. I don’t expect to sing any more performances following tonights Borsa. In fact, I don’t expect to be doing much work over the week apart from sorting out my room and all the administrative faff that moving house entails. I also have my birthday, which will be the day of the last post.

I have an audition this afternoon, here in Stuttgart, three hours before the show. I’ve done enough auditions this year to not be too stressed about it.

The next blog will be my last: the last of ‘So you want to be an Opera singer?’ for certain. I am somewhat surprised how long I have dragged this on, I have never been much of a writer but I guess my passion for Opera and for what I am doing has been easy to translate onto the bloggersphere.

I am also surprised by the 50+ thousand hits the blog has received. Thank you all for reading!! Do come back next week for my last one, and in the meantime, share the page with all your friends and have a great week.

Best,

Tom 

email me: thomaselwin@hotmail.co.uk

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